US Canada Trade Tensions Escalate: Trump's Tariffs Target Fentanyl and Imports, USMCA Strained by New Economic Pressures
Update: 2025-12-12
Description
Welcome to Canada Tariff News and Tracker, your essential update on the evolving US-Canada trade landscape under President Trump's second term. Trade Compliance Resource Hub's Trump 2.0 Tariff Tracker reveals Canada remains exempt from the US's 10% baseline reciprocal tariff implemented April 5, 2025, but faces targeted "fentanyl" tariffs effective March 4, 2025, adjusted through August 1. These hit at 0% for USMCA duty-free goods, 10% for energy, energy resources, and potash, and 35% for all other products. On October 25, President Trump threatened to hike this fentanyl rate by another 10%, intensifying pressure amid border security concerns.
Canada's countermeasures include repealing its fentanyl and steel-aluminum surtaxes plus a $30 billion hit on US goods effective September 1, while imposing a 25% automobile surtax. Scotiabank's December 11 economics report notes US customs data showing only 10-15% of Canadian imports now face tariffs, down from 20-25% in 2024, with Canada's effective export tariff rate to the US at a manageable 6.3%. Actual duties paid averaged 3.9% in September, rising as pre-tariff inventories deplete—yet most trade flows freely under CUSMA, the rebranded USMCA.
Headlines underscore tensions: Common Dreams reports the US trade deficit with Canada and Mexico ballooned to $263 billion in 2025 from $125 billion in 2020, per Economic Policy Institute analysis, claiming USMCA created more problems than it fixed, with US manufacturing jobs lost. Finimize highlights thinning buffers as new tariffs bite harder this fall. Mondaq timelines key shifts, like Canada's steel tariff rate quotas dropping to 20% of historic volumes for non-FTA countries effective December 26. Holland & Knight covers the USTR's December 3-5 hearing on USMCA's six-year review, where stakeholders debated its state amid sectoral tariffs weighing on Canada's economy.
These fluid policies fuel uncertainty—transshipment penalties at 40% for Canada started August 1, and threats loom on dairy, lumber at 250%, plus potential DST probes. US tariffs stoke inflation south of the border, per Scotiabank, slowing Fed cuts.
Stay vigilant, listeners—this landscape shifts fast.
Thanks for tuning in to Canada Tariff News and Tracker—subscribe now for weekly updates. This has been a Quiet Please production, for more check out quietplease.ai.
For more check out https://www.quietperiodplease.com/
Avoid ths tariff fee's and check out these deals https://amzn.to/4iaM94Q
This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
Canada's countermeasures include repealing its fentanyl and steel-aluminum surtaxes plus a $30 billion hit on US goods effective September 1, while imposing a 25% automobile surtax. Scotiabank's December 11 economics report notes US customs data showing only 10-15% of Canadian imports now face tariffs, down from 20-25% in 2024, with Canada's effective export tariff rate to the US at a manageable 6.3%. Actual duties paid averaged 3.9% in September, rising as pre-tariff inventories deplete—yet most trade flows freely under CUSMA, the rebranded USMCA.
Headlines underscore tensions: Common Dreams reports the US trade deficit with Canada and Mexico ballooned to $263 billion in 2025 from $125 billion in 2020, per Economic Policy Institute analysis, claiming USMCA created more problems than it fixed, with US manufacturing jobs lost. Finimize highlights thinning buffers as new tariffs bite harder this fall. Mondaq timelines key shifts, like Canada's steel tariff rate quotas dropping to 20% of historic volumes for non-FTA countries effective December 26. Holland & Knight covers the USTR's December 3-5 hearing on USMCA's six-year review, where stakeholders debated its state amid sectoral tariffs weighing on Canada's economy.
These fluid policies fuel uncertainty—transshipment penalties at 40% for Canada started August 1, and threats loom on dairy, lumber at 250%, plus potential DST probes. US tariffs stoke inflation south of the border, per Scotiabank, slowing Fed cuts.
Stay vigilant, listeners—this landscape shifts fast.
Thanks for tuning in to Canada Tariff News and Tracker—subscribe now for weekly updates. This has been a Quiet Please production, for more check out quietplease.ai.
For more check out https://www.quietperiodplease.com/
Avoid ths tariff fee's and check out these deals https://amzn.to/4iaM94Q
This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
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